- Jul 26, 2010
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How is founder caused? Usually by a sudden change in diet or routine. There has been research done, and it is true that the more grain is fed, the more the chances for founder. The classic is the already fat pony that breaks into the grain bin and eats a half a bag of grain! But horses can also founder because they are being given steroids, because they get Potomac Fever, because they are fed too much.
Years ago I worked on a farm where all the ponies foundered every spring. Every spring when the lush grass came up they were turned out 24/7 on the grass and every one of them foundered again and again. It was pretty bad even before spring grass. The ponies were all extremely fat. By time I started working there all the ponies were crippled and could not be ridden.
Once we were at a show and someone asked us to feed their horse. They went off to dinner. We found a bucket with almost 30 lbs of grain next to the horse's stall. We scraped off about 2 lbs off the top to feed the horse. We couldn't imagine they would really want to feed it all. We thought it must be for the entire 4 day show.
When the people got back, they were mad. Why hadn't we fed the horse ALL his grain. Our trainer tried to talk to the people, but they insisted, the horse needs to be fattened up.
A year later, the horse was dead.
I've also found many people feel it's good and cute for a pony to be really fat and round and roly poly. Actually, they should look like a thin horse. My vet has been very strict on us to not let the pony have ANY grass at all, he foundered so many times before we got him, now, even a little grass could cause it.
Since the problem appears to be due to feeding both grain and pasture, I'm going to guess the horse did founder. While it's true that some horses will improve if kept in a stall in deep bedding for a while, it doesn't always get all horses sound again.
Some horses DO need special shoes to support their feet if they have any chance of healing up and being usable again.
But I'm not sure what the horse has, it could be founder, white line disease or some other things.
Normally, I don't put any special shoes on a horse on the farrier's say so. I take the horse to a good leg and foot vet (some vets are not familiar with horse lameness, and some are VERY familiar and really good at working on these issues).
If a horse has foundered, he may need medication or other treatment. And I want the shoes to be a prescription from a good leg vet, not just the farrier's idea.
My farrier, all he does is work with the vet, and just about all he does is prescriptions for shoeing the vet writes. They work hand in glove, as they say, and that is really the best way to do it, where both farrier and vet agree as to what to do.
You need to find out the name of the condition the farrier is talking about for sure, get a vet book at the library or if you have one at home, and read about it. You can probably do some research on the internet too, but I'd advise caution there. Some web sites are really just advertising for what the person is selling...they will tell you some great Dr. Bristol's Snake Oil is just what your horse needs and it might not really be the right thing for him. You know how the internet is, a lot of people are trying to sell something.
The best thing to really know how it should be treated, is to get the vet involved. I know it is very expensive sounding, but it is a good way to make sure the horse will be ride-able again, and will not be in a lot of pain.
The right term for founder is 'laminitis' - it means inflammation in the lamina, the layers of the horse's hoof. Inflammation means heat, soreness and swelling. In the hoof there is nowhere for the swelling to go - because the wall of the hoof is hard and does not give.
If it gets so bad that the bones in the foot actually start to shift downward toward the ground, even to come through the sole of the foot, it is called 'founder' (an old word for falling down, as horses would often lie down and be in too much pain to stand up). The right use of the word, 'founder' means something very serious. You could say, 'founder is the result of severe laminitis'.
Trouble is, people often use the words vaguely, so you have to get a lot of details to know exactly what is going on and understand what the vet recommends.
In laminitis, they talk about 'rotation'. That is the shifting of the bones in the foot. The coffin bone starts to shift and point more down. The 'degrees' is the amount the bone has shifted. In a horse, 3 or 4 degrees of rotation is a lot.
My pony had laminitis several times before we got him. He had 14 degrees in one foot and five in the other. After three years of special trims, only very light exercise, and keeping him away from all grain and lush grass, his feet have healed, probably a lot more than a big horse's would - he now has about five degrees of rotation in each forefoot, we hope we will get it back to almost nothing.
There are lots of xrays of horse's feet on the internet so you can see what the bones in the foot and leg actually look like (google- images - Xray of foundered horse foot, or other search terms).
On this page is first a normal foot, and further down, a foundered foot.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...undered+horse+hoof&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbs=isch:1
There is a pretty good article on that web page too.
In this picture, you can see that both the hoof and the bone inside it do not look right.
http://www.lastchanceranch.org/Founder x-ray (1).JPG
The hoof itself is deformed(you can see how much the front of the hoof is 'curled' or curved), and inside it the bone has shifted into an abnormal pose.
Years ago I worked on a farm where all the ponies foundered every spring. Every spring when the lush grass came up they were turned out 24/7 on the grass and every one of them foundered again and again. It was pretty bad even before spring grass. The ponies were all extremely fat. By time I started working there all the ponies were crippled and could not be ridden.
Once we were at a show and someone asked us to feed their horse. They went off to dinner. We found a bucket with almost 30 lbs of grain next to the horse's stall. We scraped off about 2 lbs off the top to feed the horse. We couldn't imagine they would really want to feed it all. We thought it must be for the entire 4 day show.
When the people got back, they were mad. Why hadn't we fed the horse ALL his grain. Our trainer tried to talk to the people, but they insisted, the horse needs to be fattened up.
A year later, the horse was dead.
I've also found many people feel it's good and cute for a pony to be really fat and round and roly poly. Actually, they should look like a thin horse. My vet has been very strict on us to not let the pony have ANY grass at all, he foundered so many times before we got him, now, even a little grass could cause it.
Since the problem appears to be due to feeding both grain and pasture, I'm going to guess the horse did founder. While it's true that some horses will improve if kept in a stall in deep bedding for a while, it doesn't always get all horses sound again.
Some horses DO need special shoes to support their feet if they have any chance of healing up and being usable again.
But I'm not sure what the horse has, it could be founder, white line disease or some other things.
Normally, I don't put any special shoes on a horse on the farrier's say so. I take the horse to a good leg and foot vet (some vets are not familiar with horse lameness, and some are VERY familiar and really good at working on these issues).
If a horse has foundered, he may need medication or other treatment. And I want the shoes to be a prescription from a good leg vet, not just the farrier's idea.
My farrier, all he does is work with the vet, and just about all he does is prescriptions for shoeing the vet writes. They work hand in glove, as they say, and that is really the best way to do it, where both farrier and vet agree as to what to do.
You need to find out the name of the condition the farrier is talking about for sure, get a vet book at the library or if you have one at home, and read about it. You can probably do some research on the internet too, but I'd advise caution there. Some web sites are really just advertising for what the person is selling...they will tell you some great Dr. Bristol's Snake Oil is just what your horse needs and it might not really be the right thing for him. You know how the internet is, a lot of people are trying to sell something.
The best thing to really know how it should be treated, is to get the vet involved. I know it is very expensive sounding, but it is a good way to make sure the horse will be ride-able again, and will not be in a lot of pain.
The right term for founder is 'laminitis' - it means inflammation in the lamina, the layers of the horse's hoof. Inflammation means heat, soreness and swelling. In the hoof there is nowhere for the swelling to go - because the wall of the hoof is hard and does not give.
If it gets so bad that the bones in the foot actually start to shift downward toward the ground, even to come through the sole of the foot, it is called 'founder' (an old word for falling down, as horses would often lie down and be in too much pain to stand up). The right use of the word, 'founder' means something very serious. You could say, 'founder is the result of severe laminitis'.
Trouble is, people often use the words vaguely, so you have to get a lot of details to know exactly what is going on and understand what the vet recommends.
In laminitis, they talk about 'rotation'. That is the shifting of the bones in the foot. The coffin bone starts to shift and point more down. The 'degrees' is the amount the bone has shifted. In a horse, 3 or 4 degrees of rotation is a lot.
My pony had laminitis several times before we got him. He had 14 degrees in one foot and five in the other. After three years of special trims, only very light exercise, and keeping him away from all grain and lush grass, his feet have healed, probably a lot more than a big horse's would - he now has about five degrees of rotation in each forefoot, we hope we will get it back to almost nothing.
There are lots of xrays of horse's feet on the internet so you can see what the bones in the foot and leg actually look like (google- images - Xray of foundered horse foot, or other search terms).
On this page is first a normal foot, and further down, a foundered foot.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...undered+horse+hoof&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbs=isch:1
There is a pretty good article on that web page too.
In this picture, you can see that both the hoof and the bone inside it do not look right.
http://www.lastchanceranch.org/Founder x-ray (1).JPG
The hoof itself is deformed(you can see how much the front of the hoof is 'curled' or curved), and inside it the bone has shifted into an abnormal pose.
